The public beta in v120 does mainly two things. Changes have been made to the engine that will allow smooth multi-scenario campaigns to be designed.

Second it gives some extra options when playing random games. Some of these options for random games are quite experimental, we will evaluate before making this patch a gold version. I am going on holiday in a week or so, so it might be after GenCon that this patch will become gold.

If there are any buggy things report immediatly so i can fix them before i go.

Added the following options to random games. (using a new masterfile advanced.ptmaster instead of generic.ptmaster)

-Option: Seasons: If this option is activated. There will be 8 rounds of clear wheater. Followed by 2 rounds of mud. Followed by 4 rounds of winter. Followed by 2 rounds of mud. Then the cycle repeats. Mud halves movement of mechanized land troops and stops movement of air forces. Giving a small break to players with no air supriority. Winter halves the offensive strength of all land troops, but not of air or navy forces.

-Option: Rebellions: If this option is activated there is a 2% chance per town per round that rebels will appear near a town in question. If they do the rebels arrive in forces of on avergage 50 power points, with up to level III tech.

-Option: Factories: If enabled you will be able to build factories on plain,light forest and heavy forest hexes. Factories must be build at least 3 hexes appart from eachother. AI will not use this option.

-Option: Hardcore Logistics: If enabled then trucks will be double the price they normally are. Trains will be available. They are equal to trucks but they can carry only 5 troops themselves (trucks=20), they offer the same landcap though. Naval movement speed will be doubled. And most importantly your production can only arrive in the hex where it is produced. This means you will have to build HQs in every producing town. And do a lot of manual transferring. Supply still flows for free from HQ to HQ. (AI is not affected by this rule)

Option Nuclear: Allows you to research and build nuclear bombers and tactical nukes. Nuclear Bomber will waste any location except nuclear bunkers and underground factories. Nuclear bombers do not directly attack troops. Bombers will destroy infrastructure (almost always) completly and leave fallout. Tactical nukes will target troops and do relativly limited infrastructural dammage. Fallout spreads out every round. The radiation level on a hex is equal to the troops you will lose. Radiation levels drop 1 every round. The only protection from radiation is having your troops in the same hex as a nuclear bunker or an underground factory. However those locationtypes are expensive to build. The AI will not use nukes. It is advisable to also play with factories on if you play with the nuclear variant.

Option Diplomatics: More multiplayer random fun. Game starts with every player at war. But with this option turned on you can offer and make peace. Also there are cards to give PP grants to other players. All statistics which are normally hidden about casualties, kills and production are visible for everybody. Also you can share your recon with your allies if you feel like it.

-changed AS of ScoutIII + ScoutIV to 60ap so it works in Generic + Advanced masterfile.

-If FOW is OFF you can now add text to the historybook (done through the prefs menu), this way it is possible to create tactical and strategic tutorials.

-Transfer units in campaign possible (call the exec before you call load new scenario)

You can specify the areaslot which should be used for placement on the next map for the old units. 0= no placement on hex. Furthermore the higher numbers are filled first, then the lower numbers. Air and Navy units are transferred first. You can also specify the max per hex units to be transferred.

-Transfer research in campaign possible (call this exec before you call load new scenario)

All research settings for regime in question are transferred to the next map.

-Dont re-request passwords in campaign game

Same regime numbers are expected to have the same player and AI, prod bonus setting and passwords are copied.

-Import events from other scenario button added in editor (all or only group X or only event X)

-execload is executed immediatly if played through an action card. passwords, pbem, screenshots and terror settings are copied. rest is taken from scenario setting.

-Fixed an obscure but real security issue concerning pbem play. no further info given on purpose.

(upgrading to this new version will cause security warnings in running games)

Very nice Vic,i am pc and modding retarded,but i cant wait to see what the modding gods here make out of these changes,Vic i own 12 Matrix games and this one is by far the best and only BUG FREE game they have sold me,thanks alot Vic.

But maybe a bug: playing random game, got to first turn of winter, got message that infantry,armour,landmobile units offensive reduced 50%. Love the new indications on the graphics! (See pic.) But some infantry seems to be not affected also trucks only down by 38%. All other infantry on map down by 50%, armour too.

-Option: Hardcore Logistics: If enabled then trucks will be double the price they normally are. Trains will be available. They are equal to trucks but they can carry only 5 troops themselves (trucks=20), they offer the same landcap though. Naval movement speed will be doubled. And most importantly your production can only arrive in the hex where it is produced. This means you will have to build HQs in every producing town. And do a lot of manual transferring. Supply still flows for free from HQ to HQ. (AI is not affected by this rule)

Can we have option for hardcore logistic, but with automatic production forwarding ? Either divide this option in two - one train/tracks another forwarding, or give HQ ability forward everything (with exception of trains) to other HQ. Too many manual actions is never good...

Some bugs in 1.20 No mini icon for train in the production window. Empty square is not clickable, as result production couldn't be switched from the train. Another nitpick - during winter turns hexes available for movement is difficult to see.

As I've posted before hardcore logistic hardly playable - supply have to be moved manually between HQ's

Some thought about rebellion: It could be made more tactical and more fun if - 1. rebel unit could appear only in the pocket of uncontrolled territory. The more pocket the more chance of appearing of rebel unit. 2. If there is no pocket in the vicinity of the city first empty pocket appear. It grow and chance of rebel unit appearance grow. There is some chance that unit and pocket appear on the same turn, but not big. That way it's more like real anti-guerrilla warfare - weak units policing the territory, and if situation turning hot regular units deal with it.

Why is it asking too much to have a WWII campaign agaiinst the AI? I don't understand that for the life of me. I don't know how to use the pbem no matter how many people try and teach me how to use it, Talk about computer retarded. If I only knew how I would play forever. In the meantime, is it really too much to ask to have one against the AI. I don't buy, for a minute, it wouldn't work. If all the other games can do it, then I'm sure you fine folks can come up with some creative work to make it happen

1) First. The title of the game is advanced TACTICS. The title alone pretty much say that yes, it is not something that could be demanded. Grand strategy scenarios are a bonus. 2) You can play the AI in a campaign game in World War II (delyn locksmith made a scenario for example, called third reich i think). The AI needs a little tweaking. But thats the case with many games. With the solid crowd playing this game i am quite sure it will be even better. There is also an AI scenario for World War I. 3) Do you know how to save your games? Do you know how to send an email? Then i promise you i can teach you how to play PBEM. It really doesnt have anything to do with computer skills and even a computer illitirate can learn.

Laskar2k4: Dont you think you got a solid game? I can only speak for myself that i think this is the best and most versatile game since civilization and europa universalis.

I love the seasons.. But if we could get winters color darkened a bit or something. Its pretty hard to see the movement sphere with the current background.

Rebels.. Hate em.. Spawning next to my towns with tanks that i couldnt even build doesnt make much sence.. I liked the suggestion of them spawning in pockets. Maybe out of out of supply enemy pockets you hadnt taken control of. Would be like partisans and would give yea reason to hit those areas instead of just keep on cruising down the road to the next town..

ORIGINAL: theonlystd Rebels.... Spawning next to my towns with tanks that i couldnt even build doesnt make much sence..

Are the rebels possible to edit in terms of what SF_Types they have access to? If that's the case it should be an easy fix to make sure they are not "overtech" for the particular scenario.... Have to admit I haven't looked at the 1.20 due to summer vacation, so the question may be redundant...

I'd like to put a vote of appreciation for the hardcore logistics option. This really toughens up the challenge and forces you to jam your logisticians hat on very firmly.

While it does introduce a lot more micromanagement it is optional and it really does highlight the importance and difficulites of the supply side of running a war.

Great stuff.

(edited 3rd Sep 08)

I haven't found any problems with supply not going from one HQ to another (as mentioned earlier in this thread). If you have a subordinate HQ it will still receive automatic supply from it's higher level HQ. All the units attached to a HQ still receive automatic supply as well.

Perhaps the patch has been tweaked and that problem had been resolved by the time I downloaded.

Overall I find the hardcore logistics option puts a lot more emphasis on your supply net. You need the physical links (as per the normal game) but you also need a lot more transport (trucks / cargoships / trains) to shuffle stuff around. Because your production arrives only at that particular production source (eg. city) and not your forward deployed headquarters, you have to physically move it to where you want it via you supply net and transport capacity.

Due to the doubling in the cost of trucks along with your greater need for them, the option puts a fair handicap on the human player and correspondingly ups the difficulty.

The downside to all this logistical joy is that you spend a lot of time shifting stuff from A to B. Whether that outweighs the benefits is going to, as ever, be a personal choice but for those of us (probably a small minority) that like a stronger emphasis on the importance of supply and logistics this is about the best simulation/game out there that I know of.

I'd like to voice a concern regarding alliances. In the games that were pre v1.2, allies could manage to help one another although often it was tricky to keep anti-supply from causing more harm than the overall help was doing good.

Now, in v.12 we can't see or go into territory that an ally occupies. So, there is no way to cooperate in a fight on your allies territory.

What I'd like to see is some sort of intermediate posiiton that allows for non-interception and no anti-supply of your allies forces and at the same time movement and overflight are possible. Is this possible ?

ORIGINAL: Jeffrey H. What I'd like to see is some sort of intermediate posiiton that allows for non-interception and no anti-supply of your allies forces and at the same time movement and overflight are possible. Is this possible ?

This simply needs to happen. Otherwise, AT has been seriously flawed IMHO. Unfortunately, Vic has ruled out other developments in this area in another thread: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1922074 The talk about "another title" is interesting, but let's hope this is not the response we'll get on a majority of the requests and ideas put forward for AT as it stands today. That would be a pity me thinks....